1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a polishing liquid that is used in a process of manufacturing a semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, in the development of semi-conductor devices such as semi-conductor integrated circuits (hereinafter, referred to as “LSI”), increased density and integration have been sought by reducing the thickness of wiring lines and creating multiple layers thereof in order to miniaturize and increase the speeds of such devices. Moreover, various types of technologies, such as chemical mechanical polishing (hereinafter, referred to as “CMP”), and the like, have been employed in order to achieve this objective. CMP is an essential technology for surface planarization of processed layers, such as interlayer insulation films, for plug formation, for formation of embedded metal wiring lines, and the like, and CMP performs smoothing of a substrate and eliminates excessive metallic thin films from wiring line formation, and eliminates excessive barrier layer on the surface of insulating films.
A conventional method of CMP is one in which a polishing pad is fixed to the surface of a circular polishing table (polishing platen), the surface of the polishing pad is impregnated with a polishing liquid, the surface of the substrate (wafer) is pressed onto the pad, and both the polishing platen and the wafer are rotated while a predetermined amount of pressure (polishing pressure) is applied from the backsides thereof, such that the surface of the wafer is thereby planarized via the mechanical abrasion produced therefrom.
When semi-conductor devices such as LSIs are produced, fine lines are formed in multiple wiring layers, and a barrier metal such as of Ta, TaN, Ti and TiN is pre-formed in order to prevent diffusion of the wiring material into interlayer insulation film(s), and in order to improve adhesion of the wiring line material, when forming the metal wiring lines, such as of copper, in each of these layers.
In order to form each wiring layer, in general, a CMP process on metallic film (hereinafter, referred to as “metallic film CMP) is first performed at a single stage or at multiple stages to remove excess wiring material that has been deposited by plating or the like, and thereafter, a CMP process is carried out to remove barrier metal material (barrier metal) that has been exposed on the surface of the metallic film (hereinafter, referred to as “barrier metal CMP”). However, metallic film CMP can cause over-polishing, referred to as dishing, and occurrence of erosion of the wiring lines portions.
In order to reduce such dishing, in such barrier metal CMP, which follows the metallic film CMP, a wiring layer should be formed in which level differences due to dishing, erosion, and the like are ultimately reduced by regulating the polishing rate of the metal wiring portion and the polishing rate of the barrier metal portion. Specifically, in barrier metal CMP, it is preferable that the polishing rates of the barrier metal and insulation layer are moderately high, since dishing due to over-polishing of the wiring portion and erosion resulting from dishing may occur when the polishing rates of the barrier metal and the interlayer insulation film are relatively low when compared with to the polishing rate of the metal wiring material. Not only does this have the advantage of improving the barrier metal CMP throughput, but there is a requirement to relatively increase the polishing rates of the barrier metal and the insulation layer for the above reasons, since dishing is often caused by metallic film CMP in practice.
A metal polishing liquid employed in CMP generally includes abrasive grains (for example, aluminum oxide or silica) and an oxidizing agent (for example, hydrogen peroxide or persulfuric acid). The basic polishing mechanism is thought to be that the metal surface is oxidized with the oxidizing agent, and then the oxide film formed thereby is removed with the abrasive grains.
However, when a polishing liquid including these sorts of solid abrasive grains is used in a CMP process, problems such as polishing damage (scratching), a phenomenon in which the entire polishing surface is over-polished (thinning), a phenomenon in which the polished metallic surface is dished (dishing), and a phenomenon in which plural metallic wiring surfaces are dished due to over-polishing of the insulator placed between the metallic wiring layers (erosion), and the like, may occur.
Moreover, there are cost-related problems, such as a conventionally employed cleaning process for eliminating residual polishing liquid from a semi-conductor surface after polishing with a polishing liquid containing solid abrasive grains can be complicated, and such as the requirement that solid abrasive grains must be precipitated when disposing of liquid after such cleaning (waste liquid).
The following investigations have been conducted with regard to a polishing liquid containing this type of solid abrasive grains.
For example, a CMP polishing agent and a polishing method that aim to achieve a high polishing rate, with virtually no occurrence of scratching is proposed (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-17446), a polishing composition and a polishing method for improving washability in CMP is proposed (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-142435), and a polishing composition that aims to prevent agglomeration of abrasive grains is proposed (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-84832).
However, even with a polishing liquid such as described above, a technique that can realize a high polishing rate when polishing the necessary layer and that is capable of suppressing scratching caused by agglomeration of solid abrasive grains, has not been obtained.
In recent years, in particular, as wiring has come to be yet further miniaturized, low dielectric constant materials having an even lower dielectric constant than interlayer insulating films such as TEOS that have usually been used, have come to be used as insulating film. This kind of insulating film is called a Low-k film, which is made of, for example, an organic polymer based material, an SiOC based material or an SiOF based material and is usually used by laminating it with an insulating film. However, this kind of insulating film is lower in strength than existing insulating films; accordingly, in a CMP process, problems such as excessive polishing and scratching are more pronounced.